Clothesline reel



" w. M. PRIEST CLOTHESLINE REEL J May 29, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 16, 1953 May 29, 1956 w. M. PRIEST CLOTHESLINE REEL 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 16, 1953 William M. Priest INVENTOR.

BY WWW 8M3? 9v m/w mimmg mv LT mm QN vv 9% United States Patent CLOTHESLINE REEL William M. Priest, Carthage, N. C.

Application March 16, 1953, Serial No. 342,430 1 Claim. 01. 242-102 This invention relates generally to household accessories and pertains more particularly to an assembly for quickly and easily establishing a temporary clothesline.

A primary object of this invention is to provide a novel attachment which will enable a housewife to conveniently erect an indoor clothesline for temporary use, the assembly being rapidly attachable to any two opposed walls of a room.

Another object of this invention is to provide a clothesline attachment which includes a novel sub-assembly upon which a length of clothesline is conveniently wound when out of use, allowing a clothesline to be selectively established or disestablished in a convenient location, such as over a bathtub, while the sub-assembly is secured to a wall for such length of time as is desired.

Another object of this invention is to provide a compact demountable clothesline accessory which, while of simple design is fully effective to produce the desired results and which will readily lend itself to economical mass production.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the novel clothesline assembly in the operative position;

Figure 2 is a vertical elevation of portions of the assembly shown in Figure l on enlarged scale, the roller being shown in section;

Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical section taken substantially along the plane of section line 3-3 of Figure 2 showing the details of internal construction of the roller;

Figure 4 is an enlarged side elevation of a portion of the roller;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the clothesline holder showing the clothesline wound thereon in the inoperative position; and,

Figure 6 is a vertical side elevation of the assembly shown in Figure 5.

Referring now more particularly to Figures 1 and 2, reference numeral 10 indicates generally the roller subassembly of the novel clothesline accessory and reference 12 indicates generally the bracket sub-assembly, each of which is secured to one of a pair of opposed Walls 14 and 16. A loop of flexible material 18 is secured at its ends to opposite ends of roller 20 and is engaged in its intermediate portion by a pair of spaced hooks 22 provided on the cross-arm 24 of the bracket assembly. Legs 26 extend laterally from the cross-arm and are provided at their free ends with suction cups 28 whereby the bracket assembly is detachably secured to the wall. In order to secure the roller to its wall, bight portion 30 of a U-shaped bracket is provided with laterally projecting suction cups 32 while the spaced legs or ears 34 of the bracket journal the roller 20 therebetween.

The assembly as shown in Figures 1 and 2 maybe es- Patented May 29, 1956 tablished between any two opposed walls of a room so as to present a temporary clothesline assembly and will probably find its primary use as applied above a bathtub or other out-of-the-way location so that clothes, when hung, will not interfere unnecessarily with the normal functioning of the room within which the attachment is utilized. As more fully described hereinafter, the roller assembly is capable of urging the clothesline in wound relation upon the roller 20 so that when the intermediate portion of the clothesline is disengaged from the hook assembly the clothesline will be disposed in and out-of-the-way or inoperative position of the roller assembly.

Such position is shown in Figures 5 and 6 and it will be noted that the loop of clothesline is wound inwardly from the opposite ends of the roller 20 and is maintained in properly coiled relation on the roller by virtue of the sphere or ball 38 which is provided with a diametrical opening receiving a medial portion of the loop. The ball is made of soft resilient material and serves not only to pretension the spring element hereinafter described, but also prevent injury or marring of the walls adjacent the roller should the clothesline be accidently released and allowed to coil or wind too rapidly upon the roller. It Will be noted that the ball is of greater diameter than the spacing between the roller 20 and the bight 30 of the bracket so that the ball cannot pass through the opening therebetween.

Referring now more particularly to Figures 3 and 4, it will be seen that a shaft extends through and between the bracket ears 34 and is provided with a flat end portion 42 received in a corresponding slot in one of the cars so that the shaft is nonrotatably received therebetween. The roller is provided with a journal bore at each of its ends through which the shaft extends to journal the roller thereon and the roller is also provided with an enlarged chamber 44 between the bores within which a coil spring 46, concentrically disposed on the shaft, is housed. One end 48 of the spring projects radially inwardly of the shaft and is received in an opening therein to rigidly secure that end of the spring to the shaft and the other end 50 of the spring presents an enlarged loop which is engaged by a suitable fastener 52 and which terminates in an eye through which a similar fastener 56 extends. In this manner, the coil spring will resiliently resist rotation of the roller about the shaft and will normally urge the roller to a neutral position.

The journal bore portions of the roller are provided with inwardly extending radial recesses 58 which receive the ends 60 of the flexible clothesline material and the set screws 62 extend longitudinally from the opposite ends of the roller and project within these recesses to frictionally engage against the clothesline ends to securely maintain them in position. It will be noted that when the clothesline is initially positioned on the roller, the resilient ball presents a stop to slightly pretension the coil spring so as to maintain the clothesline in neat appearing and snugly wound relation upon the roller. Of course, when the clothesline is fully extended and engaged with hooks 22, the coil spring will have been stressed to a point maintaining the parallel runs of the clothesline in proper tautness. When the clothesline is released from the hooks, the resilient ball will act as a handle to permit the clothesline to be wound upon the roller. Inasmuch as the diameter of the ball is considerably less than the length of the roller, the portions of the clothesline on each side of the ball will extend in diverging relation to the ends of the roller whereby the ball will act as a handle and the clothesline will be wound upon the roller in a spiral manner for forming a smooth coil of line on the roller. The resilient frictional engagement between the ball and clothesline permits the ball to be centralized on the clothesline when the ball engages the bight portion of the bracket and the roller by the torque exerted by the coil spring thereby causing the coil of clothesline on the roller on each side of the ball to be snugly wound thereon for presenting a neat appearance and compact structure when the elothesline is in retracted position.

From the foregoing, the construction and operation of the device will be readily understood and further explanation is believed to be unnecessary. However, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

A demountable clothesline assembly comprising a U- shaped bracket, means for detachably mounting the bight portion of the bracket to a vertical supporting surface, a shaft extending between the free ends of the legs of the brackets, means for locking the shaft to one of said legs for preventing rotation thereof, a hollow cylindrical roller journaled on said shaft in spaced parallel relation to the bight portion of the bracket, a coil spring encircling said shaft with the longitudinal axis of the spring generally coinciding with the longitudinal axis of the shaft, one end of the spring being secured to the shaft with the other end of the spring being secured to the roller for resiliently resisting rotation of the roller in one direction, an elongated length of flexible clothesline, means detaehably securing the terminal ends of the clothesline to the periphery of the roller adjacent the remote ends thereof thereby forming a loop, said roller and bight portion being spaced apart a distance to permit the clothesline to be wound upon the roller, a diametrically bored spherical lnernber'of resilient material mounted centrally on said clothesline, said diametrie bore of the spherical member frictionally and resiliently engaging the clothesline, said spherical member having a diameter greater than the distance between the roller and the bight portion of the bracket for forming a stop member for engagement with the roller and bight portion of the bracket when the clothesline is wound upon the roller, the length of said roller being substantially longer than the diameter of the spherical member whereby the spherical member acts as a handle with the portions of the clothesline on each side thereof extending in diverging relation for winding of the clothesline on the roller in a spiral manner whereby the engagement of the spherical member with the roller and bracket centralizes the spherical member on-the clothesline.

References Cited. in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 898,051 Lemon Sept. 8, 1908 1,084,960 Randall Jan. 20, 1914 1,136,186 Vernon Apr. 20, 1915 1,153,829 Rueckert Sept. 14, 1915 1,493,436 Kubista et a1. May 6, 1924 2,527,402 Davis Oct. 24, 1950 2,555,635 Dickerman June 5, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 129,864 Switzerland Mar. 1, 1928 

